Seven Confusing Days
by SoneAholic
Summary: Crona admits his feelings about Maka to Soul, and gives him one week to come to terms with his own. Inspired by the Hitomi/Sayaka scene in Puella Magi Madoka Magica, and my first fanfiction. :D SoMa & CroMa
1. Intro

"Hey," Crona heard Soul's voice abruptly follow the sound of footsteps making their way to where he sat at a two-person table, alone. Crona looked up a bit to see Soul sit in the opposite seat of him, watching Crona with his usual casual look, though curiosity showed in his red eyes.

'The note you slipped to me, what's up?' Soul asked.

Earlier that day during school, after lunch, as the usual group of friends were walking out of the cafeteria, Crona walked very closely next to him, gave him a brief look, and slipped a small rectangle of paper into his hands before rapidly heading in the other direction.

When Soul had opened it, he found, in Crona's penmanship: 'I need to talk to you, and you alone. Please meet me at the only sandwich shop nearby after school.'

"You could have just asked me, you know?" Soul smiled a little, after Crona hung his head in silence. "I don't bite or anything. Though, if you didn't want to attract the attention of Black Star or Maka or whatever, that was a good move."

Crona still didn't say anything, looking further down, clenching and unclenching his robe. He only looked up briefly at Soul at times, then looked back down, waiting for when the words he needed to say would come.

Soul's smile swapped for a look of concern. 'You okay, man?' He asked. 'I'm not scaring you or anything, am I?'

At that moment a small 'ting!' went off, that being of the small bell the shop's front counter kept. Soul turned away, and after noticing that his order had been made, stood up. 'Hold on a sec,' he said.

Crona didn't respond as Soul walked away. He partially wasn't even sure why he was doing this. Was it really any of Soul's business? Would it do anything besides possibly make Soul angry at him? Was this the right thing to do?

Soul sat back down with three wrapped-to-go sandwiches. 'Sorry 'bout that. Maka seemed particularly tired today, so I reckon she doesn't feel like making dinner. Thought it'd be cool to let her off the hook tonight.' He said with a quick grin.

Soul's actions settled it. This -was- the right thing to do.

'M-Maka,' Crona mumbled.

Soul raised his eyes towards him, leaning his face on his fist. "Mm?"

Crona looked at him briefly again, then back down. He didn't lower his face though so he hid behind his bangs, merely staring at the ground. 'You care for her a lot, right?'

Soul looked at him, curiosity growing. 'I guess,' He shrugged. 'I mean, she is my meister after all.'

'And your friend,' Crona added.

'Yeah, she's that too. And my roommate.'

'A-anything else?' Crona asked.

Now Soul was a bit confused. He blinked. 'Huh?'

'Do you think of Maka as anything other than your meister, friend, or roommate?' Crona asked.

Soul stared blankly at Crona for a few seconds. 'Why? What else would she be? She's my bookworm meister-friend I live with, who's smarter than I'll probably ever be, and has absolutely no cool CDs to listen to.'

Crona paused. 'I guess that if you feel anything else about her, then you probably haven't thought much about it, right? Maybe you d-don't think you do, but you'll feel differently later. Is that wrong?' He asked tentatively.

Soul's stare continued drilling holes. 'What do you mean? Why are we talking about Maka? Why do we have to do it privately?'

_He really has no idea what I'm talking about_. Crona thought, slightly dejected. He didn't want to have to do all of the directing in this conversation. He was kind of hoping Soul would pick up on what he was trying to talk about and give Crona reasonable answers without Crona having to ask for them. He could also feel Ragnarok's impatience from inside. Before Soul arrived, Crona bought Ragnarok a huge sandwich to bribe him to keep quiet and stay inside the duration of the meeting. If it weren't for that, Ragnarok would be popping out of him breaking the news to Soul in the least tactful manner. Crona shook a little.

'I-I...'

He let out a shaky breath, and finally unclenched his hands for the last time. He raised his head to look up at Soul, getting rid of some of his fear, though he trembled on the inside.

'I have feelings for Maka...not just friendly ones...feelings that she is the only person I truly trust, and that her smile makes me feel all warm, and...stuff like that...'

Soul took his arm off the table and sat up a bit. "Wait...so..."

"I like her...more than a friend." Crona finally admitted.

It took a few seconds to register with Soul, and then he finally grinned a little. "Oh, is that it? You had me thinking something was seriously wrong! Nothing wrong with you having a crush on Maka, I guess, you know?'

'Yes,' He said. 'But I also know you and Maka are close. And...well...I think you're closer than you realize.'

Soul raised an eyebrow. Crona continued. 'You care a lot for her, right? You'd put your life on the line for her-'

'That's sort of my job,' Soul interrupted. 'Also an obligation as her weapon.'

'...And you have a strong, personal, connection with her, that only the two of you can fully understand, and I probably couldn't replace no matter how badly I-I tried for her.'

-That- shut Soul up for a few minutes in thought, until he finally came up with something of a rebuttal. 'Couldn't the same be said for all of Maka's relationships?'

'Yours definitely seems stronger though.' Crona seemed a bit dejected upon saying that, but then after a couple seconds he picked up where he left off. 'I don't want you to h-hate me, Soul...or dislike me. I don't want to take something very important away from you. Not to mention, when we first met, when I was trying to k-k-kill Maka, you nearly sacrificed yourself for her."

Soul was now awkwardly lost. "What does any of that mean?"

"You're better for her than I am, and you deserve her before I do. You probably deserve her more than I ever will." He shrunk temporarily as he said that final sentence, tensing up and looking down at the floor as if he were being punished.

'But...' Soul's eyebrows disappeared past his strands of white hair. 'That's...what do you...?'

"But I don't want to give up entirely on the one thing that makes me truly h-happy either." Crona now focused entirely on Soul, most of his fear gone and replaced with seriousness. "So I thought about it for a while...and I think you should be given the chance to tell Maka how you feel for her first...' Soul opened his mouth to speak, likely to object or deny any feelings, but Crona continued. "In a week, I plan to tell her how I feel, sometime after school, regardless of whether you do anything or not...but you should have the chance to do so b-before I do..."

Soul had no reaction. He just continued to look back at Crona with surprise, trying to piece together everything Crona just laid on the table. At the point he noticed that this was kind of uncool, he opened his mouth to try to talk again 'But why...?'

'I really need to get back," Crona stood up. "Thank you for meeting with me, I'm really sorry if I took up too much of your time. I hope we're still c-cool, as you say. But Soul-," Crona looked back at him, his expression unreadable. "P-please take this week seriously, and if you let it go to waste...be really sure about it."

Silence from both parties, until Crona said "B-bye," and started to leave.

"Hey, Crona." Soul's voice stopped him. Crona turned. "Yes?"

Soul turned to him, and gave him a small grin. "I think we'll always be cool,"

Crona gave the tiniest, most brief relieved smile, before turning and leaving.

Soul normally would have gotten up and left at this point as well. Maybe even walk with Crona until they reached his and Maka's apartment. But he was still lost, still staring ahead. He felt like Crona had strapped a timer onto him and walked away. A timer that shouldn't mean anything to him but was ringing so loudly in his ears that he had no choice but to pay attention to it. Dammit. He wasn't the least bit concerned about the nature of his and Maka's relationship previously because that stuff had never crossed his mind.

Now, Crona was jamming it into his mind with, whatever thoughts he had on it now only counting for anything till next Wednesday.

As Soul grabbed his carry-out and finally stood up to leave, he had a feeling that this week was going to be a damn long one.


	2. Day One: Thursday

_AN:_ _Hello! :) I realize that putting both Crona, Soul, and Maka in the title is going to attract fans of both the pairing of Soul x Maka and Crona x Maka. To be fair, I still haven't decided which pairing I'm going to go with, as I am a fan of both ships, but I don't want either shipping fan to be disappointed. So, don't worry. Whichever one I pick, there will be an alternate ending for the other ship. :) I'll also be writing fanfics for both ships solely, so there's that as well. Whichever of the two you are, I plan to cater to both. Thank you for reading!_

It was fortunate that the morning lesson from Dr. Stein turned out to be a lecture rather than something hands-on, as it made the fact that Soul's mind was elsewhere less obvious. He rested his chin on his hand, looking out the window. Eventually his eyes drifted towards the person next to him: his partner, paying close attention and quickly taking detailed notes. Her pigtails hung above her head, her hair sprawling across the table. Soul never noticed that Maka's hair got longer.

Maka...

Soul remembered that when he got home that night, he had still been on autopilot until seeing Maka sitting on their couch reading, looking up at him, smiling with a 'Hey,' The conversation he had with Crona briefly flashed through his mind, but he snapped out of it when Maka pointed at the bag he was carrying. 'What's that?'

'-Oh, I stopped somewhere on the way home. Thought we'd have sandwiches tonight."

"Ah, well thank you for-"

"Meow! Welcome home, Soul!" Blair ran over in a tightly fit cropped pastel sweater and white miniskirt. She pounced, hugging him and jamming his face directly into her kit-tits. He stumbled backward, feeling himself start to suffocate and bleed from his nose, until he heard a muffled 'Blair, don't.' and felt Blair being pulled off of him by a disgruntled Maka. Blair pouted for a second until her ears perked up. 'I smell tuna.'

Soul took Blair's sandwich out of the bag. 'That would be this. Here,' He handed it to her and she immediately took it with a 'Oh, yummy! Thank you, Soul!' and skipped off to the kitchen/dining room area. Soul and Maka turned to each other, shrugged and followed her.

'So, what did you and Crona do?'' Maka asked as they sat with Blair and Soul passed out their food. 'I noticed you two walking off together after school.'

'Oh, uh, he just wanted to hang out for a bit.' Soul responded as casually as he could.

Oh, really?' If Maka doubted him, she didn't show it.'That's good, he's been a bit less shy recently, but I didn't think he was at the level of asking people to hang out with him. I'm so glad he's learned to be more active in his relationships with other people...to the point where he isn't that afraid of dealing with them, you know?'

Judging from the meeting, Soul thought to himself, he was a lot less afraid of dealing with other people. Timid of course, but Crona was pretty confident in whatever he was doing, from Soul's perspective.

After dinner, Soul went to his room to 'do his homework', declining Maka's help when she offered it, and laid on his bed for about an hour. Staring off into space, thinking about nothing, then thinking about his encounter with Crona.

As soon as his thoughts started to drift towards Maka herself, he decided it would be a good time to play a super long game of Super Smash Bros.

SNAP!

Soul jerked upright, wincing in surprise. Suddenly he burst into reality and noticed the small hand quietly snapping her fingers directly underneath his face. He looked up and saw Maka frowning at him.

'Soul, pay attention!' She whispered sharply.

'Uh, yeah,' He mumbled and turned his attention determinedly back to Stein. He was starting to get bothered by his constant going-off-into-a-daze.

'Is everything alright?" Maka asked hesitantly as the two of them got up from their seats after the morning lesson.

"Yeah, why?" Soul asked.

Maka shrugged as she closed her shoulder bag and slung it over her shoulder. "You've been pretty spacey lately." She glanced over at him. Soul froze a little, were Maka's looks always that intense? Or was she wearing contacts or something? Cause the olive green in her eyes strangely stood out today. "Not to mention you were staring at me for like ten minutes. Did I do something or...?"

"Nah," He said, brushing it off as they started to walk out of the room. "Things are just pretty damn boring lately. I can't focus."

"Ah," Maka rubbed the back of her neck then offered brightly. "Well, we do have a mission on Tuesday! That should liven things up."

"I hope so," Soul responded as the rest of their gang caught up to them.

"Yahoo! Lunch time!" Black Star jumped in between Soul and Maka, slinging his arms around both of them all buddy-buddy. "Tsubaki, did you make us stuff or are we eating cafeteria grub?"

"I was pretty distracted this morning," Tsubaki smiled apologetically. "I'll bring a nice big lunch for everyone tomorrow."

"You and Soul both," Maka grinned, giving Soul a quick nudge, much to his discontent. "Things must be pretty dull then."

"I'll say!" Patty jumped up. "There haven't been many outings or missions lately and it's been too lazy."

"Lazy is good and all but maybe we should all do something fun on Friday," Liz suggested, looking at Kid for approval. Kid shrugged.

"I have no problem with that, I suppose. Depending on what we decide to do."

"Party at Kid's house!" Black Star raised his fist with a huge grin, Patty yelling 'Yay!' and following suit.

"Now, just a minute!" Kid turned towards Black Star, with his hands raised in a fluster. "We must discuss this...and it would have been polite to get my permission for a house party."

"Would YOU say no to God?" Black Star leaned towards a slightly annoyed Kid, hands on his hips, with a sasschevious smile. His eyes then turned towards Crona, who had just joined them. "YOU wouldn't, right Crona?"

"Oh...I..." Crona paused uncomfortably, shrinking away from the looming Black Star.

"Cut it out," Maka told Black Star firmly, gently pulling Crona away from him, much to Crona's obvious appreciation. Soul watched them. He knew the trust Crona felt for her and he knew it well, Crona could always depend on Maka to stand up for him when he needed it. Without a doubt, Maka would always be there. He didn't know what Crona was talking about, it was clear they showed a strong connection themselves.

Maka smiled at Crona. "How was your class?"

"It was okay," Crona replied, smiling a little back, sounding five times more comfortable, despite a pink tint on his cheeks, noticeable to seemingly only Soul. "I really liked it when Miss Marie-"

"AGGNNNGGGHHHH!" Without warning, Ragnarok popped out, creating a bit more distance between Crona and Maka. "Finally I can stretch! That class was so BORING. That fatass droned ON and ON about-"

"Miss Marie is not fat!" Crona interrupted, chiding Ragnarok for his rudeness, while Maka glared at him.

"Whatever, I'm hungry." He said, resting his head on Crona's, rubbing his stomach area.

They entered the crowded madhouse that was the DWMA cafeteria and single-filed into line, with Soul, Black Star, and Ragnarok trying to cut whoever was in front of them. They made their way to a 8-person table, with a bench for four on opposite sides. Black Star, Tsubaki, and Maka reached the table first and sat next to each other on a bench. One seat available next to Maka.

Soul was right behind Crona, and although Crona got there first, he looked at Soul questioningly, as if to ask permission. Not wanting to go into much thought about all these subtle gestures, and wanting to enjoy his lunch without the Maka scenario nagging him, he shrugged and quickly moved in front of Crona...only to sit directly opposite of Maka. Crona blinked, and awkwardly with a tint of surprise, sat down next to Maka.

As conversation resumed about what Friday's plans were going to be, Soul tuned all noise out and focused on his square less-than-appetizing cafeteria pizza. He kept looking up at Crona and Maka though, as if some invisible force kept yanking his head up. He didn't -want- to pay attention to them, yet he couldn't help it. Crona shying away whenever someone suggested something outrageous, Maka immediately noticing and putting them in their place in a second. Crona was talking -quite- a bit more lately, but all of his conversation, unless someone spoke to him directly, was towards Maka. He asked her about her day, the books she was reading...he really cared.

Occasionally, Crona's eyes would meet Soul's. Crona would either awkwardly look down for a bit, look apologetic, or stop talking to Maka for a bit out of discomfort. _Why does he care so much about what I think? _Soul thought to himself. _If he wants Maka so bad, why doesn't he just go get her instead of treading lightly around me like a scared little rabbit?_

Right then, in an order he couldn't place, the whoosh of roller skates was heard and a black fingerless gloved hand was slammed on the table to steady the skater boy. Shaking his scraggly ginger hair out of his eyes, meister Rufus shot the group a friendly smile. "Hey, Team Albarn! What's new?"

Soul shot Rufus one of his signature toothy grins. He liked Rufus. He was in their class with his twin sister Jessica, who was a weapon, and the polar opposite of Rufus. Rufus was laid-back, funny, extremely friendly, and extremely physically competent. Jessica was well-polished, careful to associate, serious, and for the most part came off as bored. She quickly appeared behind him, flipping her long straight red locks behind her shoulder. "You're so unorthodox," she rolled her eyes.

"Team Albarn?" Soul guffawed a little. "What makes you call us that?"

Rufus shrugged. "Miss Albarn here definitely has a vital driving spirit to your team. I've seen her in action. She has the look of a leader not to be reckoned with." He turned to her, his grin getting a bit softer. "Hey, Maka."

Maka had turned a bit pink at his commentary and seemed unsure of herself. "Ah...hey, Rufus! What brings you here?"

Rufus scoffed. "You know, of course. There's always a free extra dessert Thursdays for some reason, and I just-," He lifted his hand off the table, and skated around them. "Take it and look around for someone who I think should have it, and well..." He stopped right behind her, smiling and taking a wrapped cafeteria chocolate chip cookie out of his jacket pocket. "There you are."

"Rufus, you're too cool!" Maka exclaimed happily and took the cookie from him.

**-Hey-.**

Wait.

Rufus skating by them at least once during lunch, giving Maka a dessert each Thursday lunch, randomly skating by Maka in the hallways, giving her hair a friendly scruff...

Maka calling him _cool_?

That rat totally had a thing for her, didn't he?! Soul paused, mentally scolding himself for calling Rufus that in his thoughts. He was a cool dude. He didn't do anything wrong.

"Yeah, you're always so nice." Liz piped up. "Do you even have a dark side?"

"He's a little competitive when you challenge his skating, but other than that, not really." Jessica spoke, glancing sideways at her twin. "Partially why we aren't as good as a team as we could be."

"Oh, Jess! You love me, despite my craziness." He teased, still at Maka's side.

"Don't call me 'Jess'." Was her annoyed response, though there was amusement in her eyes. Rufus smiled down at Maka, his eyes twinkling. "I'll see you around," he skated back around the table, to Jessica's side. "Y'all have a good day! Don't work too hard!" He called.

"You would say that," Jessica muttered, following him with a polite wave to 'Team Albarn'.

Once they were out of reach, Liz grinned. "Don't say anything, but I think Rufus has got a little thing for our little team leader."

Soul froze, Maka sat upright blushing, and Crona shivered a little. Tsubaki smiled down at the pigtailed meister. "He does seem very taken with you, Maka."

"I honestly doubt he would stop by as often if you weren't with us." Kid commented.

"What, this cow here?" Ragnarok pointed at Maka in confusion. "There isn't one thing remotely attractive about her-"

"**RAGNAROK**!" Crona exclaimed angrily, punching him without much thought. Soul scowled at the black whining thing extending from Crona. "Goddamn prick."

"Hey, Soul and Maka should go out with Jessica and Rufus!" Patty voiced her innocent thoughts cutely. "They'd be like a brother sister team. Maka and Soul do remind me of such anyway, always bickering and such. They're like Jessica and Rufus. It's so weird," she said, happily finishing her and Liz's cookies.

-That- entire spiel made Soul uncomfortable. He stood up, yawning for an I'm -totally-bored effect. "I'm done eating, I'm gonna take my tray up then head to the bathroom. I'll see you all in class in a bit."

"Oh, Soul! Take mine!" Black Star jumped up, handing him his messy tray. "And get me seconds! Tsubaki, too!" He handed him Tsubaki's clean tray. Tsubaki looked up at Soul, smiled, and whispered. "Better not. There's not much lunch time left and he's gonna want food when we get home anyway. Best not to stuff him."

"Take ours too!" Patty shoved Soul hers, Liz' and Kid's trays. Soul took them, and his eyes shifted to Maka and Crona, looking up at him with curious eyes. "Want me to take yours too?"

"Uh, sure." Maka responded after a pause, handing him her and Crona's trays. As he turned to leave, Crona gently tugged Soul's jacket sleeve. Soul looked down at him, gave him a grin to signify everything was fine, and headed to the lunch tray station. After disposing their trays, he took a walk around the hallways of the campus.

All this interest in Maka...why? He had never expected this to happen...no, he had just never thought about this happening. He had always teased her about boys, but didn't expect anything, er, relationship-wise to happen with her. He could see Crona's eyes on him throughout the lunch, silently asking him how he felt about it.

Goddamnit, Crona. He didn't know. This all was making him strangely uncomfortable.

His first reaction was to affirm with himself that Maka was NO more than his friend.

_His best friend, _he thought softly.

_Since he definitely didn't have any romantic interest in her,_ he thought to himself, _assuming they left it at a friendship, and Maka started dating someone, how would that affect their friendship?_

Crona would probably ensure Soul and Maka hung out plenty, respecting their relationship. Rufus may be asking Maka out quite a bit, like three nights a week to go out and have fun. Crona would treasure Maka, and treat her with the utmost respect. Rufus would treat her like a princess, and always try to make her smile.

_But what if Maka didn't choose either of them?_ His mental spiel dragged on as he sat down for his next class, next to Maka, not looking at her, focusing solely on Miss Marie with his eyes and his thoughts on his mind. _What if she fell for some douchebag who insisted Maka spend basically all her free time with him, and every time he needed to be with her for missions, the asshole made her feel guilty and Maka would be unhappy whenever she had to be with Soul because she felt bad?_

_What if her boyfriend was abusive? What if he hit her and made her cry?_ Soul's stomach knotted up at the thought and he felt his eyes widen in tension. His first instinct was to smack the shit out of anyone who dared. Then he stopped short, realizing he was thinking -way- too much about this.

_Ugh, I'm becoming as crazy as her stupid old man! _He thought, burying his head into his fingers with frustration, clenching his teeth, fixedly staring ahead. He saw Maka raise her eyebrows at him from the corner of his eye, but thanks to the lecture going on, neither spoke.

_What would happen if she and her boyfriend lasted till the end of high school?_ Soul's thoughts continued, against his will, as they headed out of the DWMA. _Would she move in with him and he'd have to live alone? What would he do with Maka's room? Would she take Blair? Would he at least be allowed to visit them for dinner, cause her cooking was really awesome._

_What if her boyfriend was also a weapon?_ Soul's stomach knotted again, he felt sick. _What if she developed greater chemistry with him than-_

"**SOUL**!" Soul jumped at Maka's exclamation of his name, and turned to her glaring at him.

"Ow! WHAT?!" He instinctively yelled back angrily.

"Stop spacing out so much! It's getting really irritating. Are you SURE nothing's wrong?" She asked, bending over to peer into his slouched face.

"-Nothing- is wrong, okay? I promise you have nothing to worry about." Soul truthfully reassured her, she definitely didn't have anything to worry about.

"You're gonna be up for bowling Friday night, right?" She asked. "Figured I'd remind you because, again, I don't know where your mind has been all day. So you probably didn't hear that being decided on." She was clearly a little peeved that Soul wasn't sharing his thoughts with her, but he ignored that.

"Yeah, sure." He said, literally waving that off. They walked in somewhat comfortable silence for a bit before he turned to her again. "Y'know, Rufus and Crona are pretty, erm...cool."

"Yeah..?" Maka turned to him, a confused expression on her face. "What about it?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "Just saying, if you wanted to ...I don't know...try things out with one of them... that'd be all right you know?"

"Huh?" Maka jumped a little, an uncomfortable look spreading across her face. "What are you- wait," she said, her eyes narrowing. "You liked Patty's idea didn't you? What, do you have the hots for Jessica or something? Do you think Rufus and I dating will make it easier for you to get closer to her?"

"What? Maka!" Soul made a face. "Why would I? She ain't half-bad looking, but definitely not my type. She's just..." He winced. "Ehh...not fun."

"And what motive do you have for mentioning Crona?" She asked, relenting, yet still suspicious.

"None, okay? They just seem cool! They'd be good for you and all! They're not asshats!" He blurted.

Maka stopped, looking at him strangely. She blinked. "Ah..uh." She didn't know how to respond to that. "I guess?"

Embarrassed, Soul's eyes shifted away. "Forget I mentioned it. It's your turn to make dinner again, since you didn't yesterday." He looked back at her and grinned. "I'm really hungry for steak tonight."

"What?!" Maka yelped. "I don't feel like cooking a whole steak!"

"Hey, I bought you dinner last night while your nose was in a book not cooking. I think I deserve a bit of steak." He shot back.

Maka grinned a little. "Maybe, if you can beat me back to the apartment!" She kicked off immediately, running ahead of him as fast as she could.

Soul looked after her, at her perfectly toned legs running away from him for a split second then growled eagerly and dashed off after her. _Day One_, he thought to himself, _and I'm already questioning my sanity._


	3. Quick Update

Hi guys! No, I haven't forgotten about you. I'm still working on the next chapter, I just had to take care of a few loved ones with the stomach flu, and then, guess who got it herself? X_X I still have it, but at least I'm past the point where I can barely move and now at the point where I can eat two crackers every three hours. I'm grateful for that. :)

I should be better by the end of this weekend at least. I just didn't want you guys to get disappointed or think I was abandoning this. Looking at a computer just made me nauseous for a while (still does. Updating from my iPad with the brightness turned all the way down. I have it -bad-).

I'll update the story by this Sunday for realsies and take this update down. Thank you guys for being so understanding. I'm gonna rest a ton and get better and not let you down. :)


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